Another keyboard community

Hamdori 2009-05-12 11:10 조회 7,722 추천 0

Hi, All.

I am studying in U.S. right now, and unfortunately a mechanical keyboard in US is not as popular as in Korea.
Even I can't buy Filco or Topre keyboard here in US because there does not exist retailers who want to import those kind of high-end keyboard and sell them.
Only way I can buy those kind of high-end keyboard is to buy from Japanese seller through ebay. (I needed pay for shipping and handling which is usually expensive because it is coming from Japan to US)
However, one web site started to import and sell Filco keyboard in US recently (elitekeyboard). In fact, I got this information from this Kbdmania web site. Thanks guys! :-)
I was so happy to find out that I can buy Filco keybord without paying expensive shipping and handling, so I ordered Filco Majestouch tenkeyless model with brown switch. I am very satisfied right now. :-)

After I bought the Filco Majestouch keyboard, I was curious about keyboard manias in US, and I found one web site. I wonder if you guys already are aware of this site.

http://geekhack.org

I don't think the users from this web site are not as knowledgeable as the users in kbdmania, but this web site is pretty active, too.
If you are curious to know about US or Europe keyboard mania, I think this is the best to place to monitor.

Nice to meet you guys!
See you~

이상한나라의동화 2009-05-12 21:29

Hi Hamdori, (I think I met you in some irc linux channel. I was known as Nappeun(Bad)-Dong-Hwa :)
It is good to hear you brought a good keyboard in US. I also like Filco keyboards. I already knew that site geekhack, which is pretty famous, I think.
Nice to meet you (again:). I wish you are happy there. (I guess you are a graduate student. Am I right? If so, I wish you have got a lot of good research (papers).)
(Although I think you can read Korean character,) my nick name is Yi-Sang-Han-Na-Ra-Eu-Dong-Hwa (Dong-Hwa in Wonderland:).

o2dazone 2009-05-13 00:01

Hi! I came from Geekhack. Unfortunately a lot of keyboard resources aren't in English, I guess people don't care about keyboards as much in North America and Europe :( ~ Elitekeyboards is relatively new, and great! There's also a few 'point of sales' websites that sell affordable mechanical keyboards (I got a Cherry board, blue mx for $65!)

In any regards, looking forward to reading this English board more :)

이상한나라의동화 2009-05-13 01:43

welcome. yep in here the most of resources are written in Korean language, because everybody is Korean.:)
IMHO, there no logical connection between no resources in English and people's habit about keyboard.

huha 2009-05-13 05:56

Hi, I also came from geekhack. There are very few english keyboard resources on the internet, most of it is in Korean, Chinese or Japanese. I always have to use an automatic translation to read these websites.
The situation with mechanical keyboards is even worse in Europe than it is in the U.S.: You can just get a "Das Keyboard III" (Blue MX), a "Steelseries 7G" (Black MX) and the Cherry G80-1800 (black MX) and G80-3000 (black MX, brown MX or blue MX). No Filco, no Topre, no IBM/Unicomp. It makes me sad.

kant 2009-05-13 08:02

Hi o2dazone and huha.

In Europe division, anyway Cherry have been playing in their home ground. :)
Although, it seems that they are interested in Wireless membrane type keyboard more. Anyway, they have been making good keyboard for a long time.

huha 2009-05-13 10:32

Cherry actually don't sell many different mechanical keyboards (at least in Germany, where I live). Most have black MX and are expensive because of special features like card readers. You can get the G80-3000 with black, brown or blue MX. The G80-3000 is inexpensive for a mechanical keyboard (50 EUR), but not without a reason: It has a very cheap case made of thin plastic, the switches are not plate mounted and there is no metal backplate or support.
"Premium keyboards" sold in Asia (Filco etc.) have a much better build quality. There are almost no "premium keyboards" in Germany (just the Steelseries 7G, but it has black MX and the "Das Keyboard III" with blue MX).

Two pictures of a G80-3000LAMDE-0 I own:

The PCB is held in place by two plastic hooks:

This is the case without the PCB:

-huha

netdiver 2009-05-13 10:44

Good to meet you guys from GeekHack! Always be welcome!

lowpoly 2009-05-13 19:10

Another geekhack member checking in. :-)

huha, the Cherry G80 keyboards don't need the backplate because they use a different switch. That switch has two more pins at the bottom to keep it from rotating. That's reason one for using a backplate. The other is support of the pcb. That's why there are those horizontal ribs in the bottom of the Cherry case.

이상한나라의동화 2009-05-13 21:17

hi lowpoly. some heavy back plate makes keyboard stabler and better typing feel. some guy loves such heavy support, so he tried cement (you may know concrete of building.). the other guy used metal plate (around 3 kg). yes you are right for the working that's enough. but you may feel less fun of typing. :)
welcome huha and lowpoly.

huha 2009-05-14 07:08

The G80-3000 is stable as well, but it just doesn't feel so nice. Having a keyboard with a steel backplate is so much nicer. Plate mounted switches have a better sound, too.
The G80-3000's case warps easily. I didn't add a metal plate (like this guy) or concrete, but I used a steel bar to reinforce the case of my black G80-3000. It's now 0.5 kg heavier and does not bend so easily, but it still doesn't feel like plate mounted switches.

이상한나라의동화 2009-05-14 13:55

What kind of switch do you use? [In my guess, you may use click (blue) switch. Am I right?] If you are use brown or white shitch,. I am not recommand using the metal plate (for the mounting switch). Here we have some consensus, such metal plate were good for click (blue) and linear (black) switches. For the click switch metal plate makes better click sound. For the linear (black) switch, it makes better feeling. [For the linear switch, WYSE keyboard is one of the best choices.] However, for the non-click (white and brown) switch, your finger may be asleep (I mean dull in feeling). [you can image you can beat metal plate by you finger. One or two times, it is nothing. But if you strike maybe more than thousand time, it might be painfull and than finally you lose your feeling of finger. DO NOT WORK HARD . ;)]
By the way, we made the such metal plate for G80-3000. [Price will be 40,000 won. I am a bullboy for the currency. I guess it will be 20-40 Euro] If you want it I can send it but I guess transportation fee will be biger and bigger [Right now I don't know how much]

lowpoly 2009-05-15 01:28

I see the sound issue but this is mainly due to the G80-3000's case being way too big. Especially since the controller became so small.

I've seen the key feel argument before but do not really understand it. If the pcb has proper support then the key is not going anywhere. Unless you slam it really, really hard. Which is not good for your health, as you said.

huha 2009-05-15 07:26

The keyboard originally had blue MX switches, but I swapped springs. I found blue switches were too light to press, so now they're green MX switches (at least I think so). When I have time (maybe this weekend), I'll take some measurments of the springs to see if I'm correct.

-huha

이상한나라의동화 2009-05-15 09:51

Whew, feeling is the one of the most difficult to explain. It is similar to explain the taste of salt to he/she who doesn't taste salt. I think the best way is trying taste salt. And think about this, if you have to explain that in the language, which is not your mother tongue. :) So honestly, I don't want argument. :O

I am not talking about hardly slamming. I just want to talking about "injuries from repeated action".

I guess huha's problem(?) about G80-3000 were old and discussed on geekhack. Am I right?

Hak Foo 2010-01-11 14:21

I think mechanical keyboards are under-rated when it comes to managing "repeated action injuries".

It's all about "bottoming out" on the rubber-dome keyboards. I notice that there's a large "space" between where the mechanical keyboard activates, and when the keyboard slaps down. It's really noticable with the Blue G80-3000 I've been using lately, but even the "heavy" mechanical switches (ALPS, Bucking Spring) have the space.

It's like if you tapped your fingers on your desk for 8 hours, or waved fingers against the air.

I'm developing a repetitive-stress injury, but I suspect it's from the mouse. I may have to trade the G80 in on a Filco Tenkeyless, or in true KBDMania spirit, break out the saw. :)